Do
you ever wonder what makes some recruiters so successful while others don’t
seem to be able to produce great results?
I’ve been in the business for a long time and worked with many, many
recruiters in both agency and corporate environments. The great ones are happy to share their
knowledge and secrets of success and I am an enthusiastic learner. Allow me to share what I have learned with
you and I would love to hear back what you have learned on your recruiting
journeys. What I have discovered is there
are 4 basic skills that every successful recruiter has mastered. They are; sales, smarts, savvy and
storytelling.
Sales:
Recruiting
is basically all about selling… you sell the candidate on the job and you sell
the hiring manager on the candidate. Agency
recruiters have to use super sales techniques to cold call into companies and
sell the hiring managers on using an agency and paying a fee. Corporate recruiters also face challenges in convincing
hiring managers who assume calling their job out to an agency is the only way
to get top tier candidates. They have to
convince their hiring managers to give them time to source, screen and submit
qualified candidates that didn’t apply to the posting. Then they sell them on why they should interview
the candidates they have recruited. Both
face the ultimate challenge of convincing that perfect purple squirrel
candidate to accept their role which, when successful, can be a feat of infinite
magic and a wonder to behold. This is
one of the best feelings a recruiter will ever have… taking a stellar passive
candidate, presenting them with their ideal job, arranging all the interviews, negotiating
offer details and finally getting the signed offer letter… talk about time to
celebrate and pat yourself on the back!
In the agency world we used to ring a bell when that happened and
sometimes I feel like ringing a bell now when closing a really challenging req…
if not ringing a bell then at least popping a cork. J
Smarts:
Recruiters
have to be experts in their fields. They
are super sleuths like Nick Charles or Jake Gittes (“Forget it, Jake. It’s
Chinatown.”), private detectives prowling the cities and cyberspace… first finding
top tier candidates; researching where they work and play, finding contact
information and getting them into a conversation before they can even present a
job opportunity to them. Some great
recruiters can work without any tools at all… just their intellect and industry
knowledge. I know one recruiter who only
recruits for specific industry professionals so he pretty much knows all the
players and has their contact information so that when he gets an order from a
competitor, he just picks up the phone and starts dialing for dollars. Other great recruiters use all the tools
available. (I happen to fall into this
camp.) We need tools not toys. ATS, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+,
Pinterest, Blogs, ZoomInfo, Boolean searches… you name it we use it! We are building a social network and a
personal brand to attract and engage with leaders in our industries. I love it when I find people using new tools
like Pinterest and can speak to them about their interests and interacting with
new people who find me on Twitter and Google+.
Savvy:
To
paraphrase a Kenny Rogers song… you won’t get very far as a recruiter unless you
know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away and know
when to run. You never count your money when
you’re sittin at the table... Recruiters
are like gamblers in a way; they have to read people and know what motivates
them, when and how to approach them and how to give them what they want so that
everyone wins. This is a fine art and a
skill that is honed over the years.
Every now and then you will come across a natural born recruiter but
most have been seasoned, tried and proven thru fire. They know what works because they have made mistakes
and had great successes and learned from them both.
Storytelling:
If
you can’t tell a story about the company you are representing or why this
particular job is so wonderful for that particular person at that particular
time in their career, you probably won’t see stellar results. On the flip side, you have to tell the
candidate’s story to the hiring manager so that they will understand how that
particular candidate will successfully meet their needs for their team at that
moment. Great recruiters use their
storytelling skills to paint a picture of the role they are recruiting for, the
company culture, innovation in the industry, career path, success stories from
former people in that role, what it would be like to work with that team,
current projects and cool new projects on the horizon that they can be a part
of from day one… you get the picture.
Some people think that if you offer a candidate enough money they will
take your job. They couldn’t be more
wrong. People change jobs for many
different reasons but in my experience only about 20% or less focus solely on
salary… it is usually the type of work they will be doing, who they are working
with and if they will be challenged and afforded new growth and learning opportunities.
My hiring managers are interested in why
candidates do what they do… what motivates them and gets them out of bed every
day. A passion for what they do and the
fire to make things happen and make a difference… that’s what our hiring
managers look for in potential candidates, we have even started hiring to our
values in some roles over technical expertise, especially in customer care
roles. You can teach technology but you
can’t teach desire, drive and a heart for the customer.
